1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a networked device having printing capabilities and, more particularly, to providing a secure, efficient private print function to such a networked device.
2. Description of Related Art
Networked systems in which a number of users operating individual workstations share resources such as a file server, printer and multifunction peripheral are well known. Where such systems are in use, individual workstations may be at some distance from the peripheral devices such as printers, which output paper copies. Thus, an individual may not be present when the job that he or she submitted is printed. Even an individual who is stationed near such a device may not be aware of his or her job being printed. Jobs will normally queue up and be printed in the order in which they are submitted to the device. In situations where many users share a device, or jobs are large or slow (due, for example, to being graphical or using a bit-mapped font) there may be a considerable time delay between submitting a job and it being printed.
Thus, it will often be the case that a given print job is removed and subject to scrutiny by a person other than the one who submitted the job for printing. There are times when this can cause severe problems. For example, confidential personnel records concerning benefits and pay information may be printed out. If an unauthorized person obtains access to such information, employee morale can be seriously affected. As another example, in large law firms, there may be a need to isolate certain attorneys from information concerning specific clients who may represent conflicts of interest for that particular attorney. Allowing an attorney who is supposed to be isolated by such a "Chinese Wall" access to print jobs relating to such a client may represent a severe ethical violation, having serious repercussions for both client and firm.
There have been some systems disclosed which attempt to deal with this situation.
One such system, exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,342,034 and 5,358,238 to Mandel et al and U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,544 to Mandel, involves a standard "mailboxing unit", which is either a universal modular device or a stand-alone unit. Print jobs are directed and sorted to one of a number of mailbox bins within the mailboxing unit. The bins may by assigned to different users at different times, and some of them may be electronically locked, needing a user access code. Private mail can be directed to these electronically lockable bins, together with a user access code associated with a current private print job. The mailboxing unit is bulky, however, and can only handle a fixed number of private print jobs at any given time. Furthermore the size of any private job is limited by the size of the largest locked mailbox and the ability of the printer to combine mailboxes. Problems can also arise if a user forgets the access number that he or she associated with the job. When this happens not only will the user not be able to retrieve his or her copy, but the private mailbox will be rendered unusable by other private print jobs until such time as someone is able to override the `lock` on the mailbox. Additionally, since the system provides no incentive for a user to pick up a job promptly, there will inevitably those who neglect to pick up their private jobs, rendering even fewer private bins available to other users.
In another system, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,571 to Notermans et al, a workstation user can associate a code with his or her print job. The printer then stores the print job without subjecting it to any further processing, placing it in a queue with other print jobs. The printer informs the workstation user when the job is ready for printing. If the user does not respond within a predetermined time to the message that his or her job is ready, then the print job is placed once again at the end of the queue of print jobs. If the user does respond from his or her workstation, then he or she is given a predetermined time to physically access the printer and enter the associated code. Presumably no jobs are being printed while the printer awaits these responses, and thus the printer experiences idle or down time, lessening its productivity.
With this system, the user must be ready to respond rapidly in order to maintain the position of his or her print job at the head of the queue ofjobs to be printed. Furthermore, since the print job will not be started without an acknowledgment from the sending workstation, if the user goes elsewhere after submitting the print job, he or she is constrained to return to the workstation before obtaining the print job (and will not be able to obtain the print job at all if the workstation fails in the interim). At the same time, if the user responds at the workstation, but does not respond quickly enough at the printer, he or she will be forced to wait at the printer until his or her job reaches the head of the queue once again. This wait decreases the user's productivity. Furthermore, the user will not know when he or she enters his or her PIN manually at the printer whether there is a queue or how long that queue is. If the user finds that he or she is waiting what seems to be an excessive time, the user may depart, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. If this happens, the job will no longer maintain the status of a private print job, since it is now destined to be printed whether or not the person who submitted it returns to the printer.
Furthermore, since the jobs are stored in coded form, the user will have to wait at the printer for the job to be converted to graphical output.
In addition, since the user need input only the PIN and not his or her identity, once at the printer it is possible, although highly unlikely, that the print jobs of two different people using the same PIN could be confused.
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a facility for workstation users on a network to have private jobs printed in an efficient manner.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a facility for workstation users on a network to have private jobs printed where the user need not respond, within a predetermined time, to a job being ready, .
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a facility for workstation users on a network to have private jobs printed, where each job is printed with minimal delay once the user manually inputs identifying information into the printer.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a facility for workstation users on a network to have private jobs printed where multiple jobs may be printed without the user having to input information at the printer for each job.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a facility for workstation users on a network to have private jobs printed, where the printer continues printing other jobs while waiting for the user to manually input a PIN number for printing of a private print job.